The Spectacle Blog

Dear Prowler: I am shocked. Shocked, I say. How could you deny Condi Rice her life's dream? If Jeb or anyone else should step in front, she'd be sentenced to more time in Foggy Bottom. And we'd be sentenced to more anguished cries from those who want us to equate her with Maggie Thatcher. 'Tis not devoutly to be wish'd.

Many are asking why Eliot Spitzer didn't target the now-indicted class action lawsuit firm Milberg Weiss. Some suggest it is because their execs gave his campaign money. I would guess it was more ideological -- Eliot Spitzer is what lawsuit-happy, anti-business lawyers would be if they got their hands on the New York state attorney general's office.

Interesting that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush so publicly discussed the early feeler put forward by representatives of the National Football League, who are in what can only be termed the "exploratory" phases of a search to replace outgoing commissioner, Paul Tagliabue.

Bush denied any interest in the position, though he admitted to speaking in general terms about the job with emissaries from the NFL ownership ranks. When Bush's term ends, the assumption is that he will dive back into real estate and the family business of laying the groundwork for another political run in the future.

He has been clear in his lack of interest in jumpstarting a Presidential run for 2008, though there remains hope in some quarters of his being arm-twisted into joining the bottom of a GOP ticket, or perhaps allowing a "Draft Jeb" operation to proceed. Given the effort Bush is putting forward for Sen. John McCain in Florida, there is little doubt there would be opportunities for Jeb in a McCain campaign and administration.

Okay, finally my report, belatedly, on the terrific speech Mike Pence made at Heritage yesterday -- about which, by the way, he also will talk in a few hours on these shows: The Sean Hannity Radio Show,4:30 p.m. ESTFox News' Big Story With John Gibson, 5:00 p.m. ESTCNBC's Kudlow and Company, 5:15 p.m. EST

I still haven't done my big posts on the Pence immigration bill, but the Washington Post's Charles Babington gets a HUGE aspect of it wrong. "Pence's plan would require all illegal immigrants in the United States to be deported...," wrote Babington. Well, no. That sentence implies force. Instead, it would require that in order to get guest worker cards, the current illegals would have to "self-deport" in order to apply at "Ellis Island Centers" outside our own borders, presumably in Mexico. No government official would deport the people; the people would take advantage of the incentives to return to Mexico in order to become legal, under their own power and authority. The distinction is huge, and it's key to the whole bill.

I'll be on with Larry Kudlow today talking about China, the Iran missile test and the story that Negroponte is allowing secret projects to stay outside SEC reports. Shocking, shocking. Secrets being kept secret?

Neither Orin Kerr nor his very smart commenters (Kerr moderates his comment section with an eye toward keeping the discussion at a high level) can figure out how the raid on William Jefferson's office could possibly be unconstitutional. As for the politics of House leaders' complaints, John Podhoretz nails it: Hastert is an idiot.

Well, well, well.It seems that the John Kerry model of the “Winter Soldier” – his infamously phony “investigation” into Vietnam war crimes that featured the testimony of several men who never served in Vietnam and couldn’t have witnessed the acts they “testified” to – has been adopted as a model for the new anti-war crowd.Michell Malkin has a great column on one Jessie MacBeth who is claiming to have witnessed and participated in war crimes in Iraq. Here’s the money quote:

Last night, several hours after I weighed in on the search of Wm Jefferson's office (to the effect that the caterwauling about the search was misplaced and that the search was okay), the highly esteemed Mark Levin said the same thing, and explained it very well, over at NRO. Methinks Hastert and Company ought to listen to Levin and Viet Dinh and stop their self-destructive complaints.

Addendum: Now catching up with lots of related material from yesterday, NRO's Byron York and Andy McCarthy both also say the same thing.

The American Spectator Foundation is the 501(c)(3) organization responsible for publishing The American Spectator magazine and training aspiring journalists who espouse traditional American values. Your contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Each donor receives a year-end summary of their giving for tax purposes.